LINDLEY TO HEAD POTTSTOWN SCHOOLS (VIDEO)

POTTSTOWN - The new leader of the Pottstown School District has a familiar face.

For 10 years, Reed Lindley has been the district's assistant superintendent and for six years before that, the principal at Pottstown High School.

And for the next three years, he will be the superintendent of the Pottstown School District.

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By a vote of 7-1 Thursday, the Pottstown School Board chose Lindley from among a field of three applicants, all of whom are currently employed by the district.

Jeff Sparagana, the director of education, and Angela Tuck, principal at Edgewood Elementary School were the other two applicants.

To them, school board President Rick Huss said "I hope you stick around. We have a lot of work to do in this district."

Both Lindley and Sparagana had applied for the post in 2005, when David Krem, then principal at Edgewood, was selected by the board.

The hiring follows what has become a Pottstown tradition. The district's last four superintendents - Ray Feick, Frank Heiffer, Anthony Georeno and Krem - have all come from within the district.

Huss made the motion to hire Lindley with a second from board member Polly Weand.

Krem is leaving at the end of June to become superintendent of the Wyomissing School District in Berks County.

None of the three candidates spoke when the vote occurred, but the meeting

room, filled with about 50 people, did erupt into applause, including that of the two other applicants.

"I would like to thank all three people," said school board member Robert Hartman. "It was a difficult decision with all three interviews."

Hartman said he attended the forum held Wednesday night at Invictus Ministries in which all three of the applicants answered questions.

Noting that there were no more than 40 people there, Hartman remarked "I had heard the public was in outcry" about not having more public involvement, but he suggested the low turn-out belied that assertion.

"What it did show, I think, is that all three are very well qualified and that there was no reason to go outside the district" to look for a new superintendent, Hartman said. "It shows the quality of people we have inside our district."

The only school board member to vote against Lindley's appointment was Thomas Hylton.

He said he would vote against the permanent appointment of any of the three candidates not because he does not think they are qualified, but because he believes the board should hire one of them as an interim superintendent "for up to one year and we can offer a three-to-five year contract to any of them later on in the year. That way we could take our time before making a decision."

In April, the board voted 6-3 against Hylton's motion to hire an interim superintendent.

Hylton noted that the law only requires the school board to hire two people, the superintendent and the solicitor.

"Once they are appointed the board is almost totally dependent on them for all the information we receive," Hylton said. Taking more time to be sure to select the right person is important because "those two appointments are probably the most important things we do," he said.

Lindley will take charge of the district on July 1 on the proviso that he and the board can reach a contract agreement. It will replace the contract the board granted Lindley on Oct. 15, 2009.

That was the month that all four of the district's top administrators - Krem, Lindley, Sparagana and Business Manager Linda Adams - were given five year extensions on their contracts at the last meeting before the coming election.

The argument was made by the former board majority that extending the contracts, six months before they expired, would keep the administrators in Pottstown and provide stability.

Valerie Harris, who at the time was not a board member, told the board that it would not prevent any of the administrators from leaving.

Hylton, also not yet on the board at the time, said the extensions were taking an opportunity away from Sparagana and Lindley to apply for the top job when Krem's contract expired.

At the time the contracts were extended, all four agreed to forgo "merit pay" increases and accept raises only half-a-percent above the Philadelphia consumer price index.

Krem will enjoy a $5,000 raise in Wyomissing over his current salary of $160,623.75

As Assistant Superintendent, Lindley was to be paid $154,221.50 this year. His new salary will be a matter of negotiation.

Just last week, the Phoenixville School Board ended a lengthy superintendent search announcing a five-year contract with its new superintendent, Alan D. Fegley, at a salary of $205,000.

In November, the Owen J. Roberts School Board signed a new superintendent, Joel DiBartolomeo, to a five-year contract with an initial salary of $165,000.

That same month, the Boyertown Area School Board hired a new superintendent as well, Dion Betts, whose four-year contract guaranteed him a starting salary of $145,000.